Eat your vegetables
By Julie Carter
I have a paperback school workbook called My Health and
Safety Book, copyright 1930, that belonged to my dad when he was a kid.
I don’t know what grade he was in when this was his text
book but from the looks of the handwriting, I’d say about fourth grade. The
book is a chuckle from start to finish and not just in what he wrote, but the
lessons themselves. Things were a whole lot different then.
First there are several suggestions to teachers. One of them
is a daily health inspection including hands, nails, faces, teeth, ears, noses,
clothing and reports concerning personal baths. It was recommended that every
school have soap, water and towels available.
Nutrition is stressed and a food chart showing that the
nutritional value of one quart of milk is equal to one of the following:
two pounds of potatoes, eight eggs, nine and one half oranges or five pounds of
turnips. Five pounds of turnips! All I can say to that is, “Got Milk”?
Developing good habits of hygiene, posture, nutrition and
safety are ongoing themes in the text book. It even tells you where not to
throw a banana peel.
One lesson explains why hanging on the back of truck going
down the road is unsafe and another teaches how to get off a street car. This
made me laugh. I’m pretty sure at this time my dad was still riding a horse to
school in the mountains of Colorado.
According to this book, eating too much can cause bad dreams
and spitting is a dangerous habit because it spreads disease. Students had to
name five places where one should not spit. I’m not sure why my dad’s
answer “Not at the girl in the desk in front of you” wasn’t correct.
Leaning from windows is dangerous and a drawing of a kid
hanging up side down out an upper story window proves the fact. Tea and coffee
will make the hearts of children beat too fast and make their hands tremble.
And umbrellas improperly used can be dangerous. “It is much better to get your
clothes wet than to be crippled or killed by a car.”
A warm bath with soap is recommended at least once a week
except during the summer and then and I quote, “you should take a bath oftener
than once a week.” And one should not take a bath just after eating a meal.
According the book a cow and garden are the two finest
things that a man can own. “Vegetables keep your bowels open. You cannot have
good health unless your bowels are kept open.” So there, good reason to eat all
those greens on your plate!
The list of daily health chores on the last page includes
the usual wash before meals, brush teeth twice a day, and play outdoors for
fresh air and exercise. It also lists drinking three glasses of water a day,
going to the toilet at a regular time, and drinking two glasses of milk slowly.
But my very favorite was “10 hours or more of sleep at night
and with the window of my room open.” The more things change the more they are
the same.
Julie can be reached for comment at jcarternm@live.com.
1 comment:
Mr. Wilmeth is entirely correct about the benefits to all of society from private management of natural resources. Wildlife, hunters, and recreation have all benefitted from predator control that was paid for privately to protect livestock. Ranch experience in Nevada indicates the greatest abundance of wildlife such as sage grouse and mule deer occurred after the establishment of ranches (especially sheep) and peaked about 1960. These same wildlife declined catastrophically following the huge expansion of public employees in the 1980s.
I am a little curious about Wilmeth's description of Lion depredation but no mention of coyotes as a factor in deer populations. Coyotes commonly kill and eat deer around here.
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